L&D 2020?A guide for the Next Decade

Martyn Sloman

www.training journal.com m.sloman@kingston.ac.uk

Our agenda

How workplace skills are changing in a service-led and knowledge-driven economy

1

How should we react to the recession?2

• founded in 1981- now a $4.8 billion company employing 115000 people

• “our aim is to become a provider of business solutions leveraging technology to compete with any consultancy in the world”

• major investment in knowledge and learning

• each year seeking to recruit 10000 people. In 2007 received over 1.3 million applications

• new entrants receive 14 weeks training – delivery 50% classroom, 50% hands-on activity with the support of a mentor

• training department intervenes through just-in-time courses mainly delivered off-the-job and mainly project-specific

“You never know what the next product will be, so you need to update the skills so that people have new techniques to cope with whatever comes their way”

“Previously the investment has been in machinery, now the investment is in people”

Adrian Roberts Personnel Manager, Ina Bearing Company Ltd

The rate of learning must be greater than the rate of change L C

L&D builds organisational benefits through higher value products and services. The challenge is how to do it in practice in the context of the organisation.... Hence the profession needs both a new mindset and a new skillset.

.......like it or not we must all become economists

http://www.trainingjournal.com/content/a-professional-guide-for-the-next-decade/

“there has… been a marked and sustained increase in the proportion of people who report that computing is an ‘essential’ part of their job. This rose from 31% in 1997 to 40% in 2001, and then to 47% in 2006.”Use of ‘influence skills’ (communicating, analysing, persuading) and literacy skills rising most .”

Changing skills at work

“we need to ensure that we supply the ‘right’ skills which effectively meet the changing needs and requirements of the labour market. This calls for a renewal of the commitment to ‘economically valuable’ skills.”

PowerPoint exercise

Trainingan instructor-led, content-based intervention, leading to desired changes in behaviour

Learninga self-directed, work-based process, leading to increased adaptive capacity

Learning not training

The googlisation of learning

“the information economy is the culmination of what the Industrial Revolution started – it has placed human capital front and center as the main driver of productivity and growth.”

From trainer-centric to learner-centric and business-centric approaches

“There will be a shift in balance of the L&D professional’s skillset towards greater business understanding, change management, organisation development and use of new technologies”

From

ToDeveloping the individual knowledge and skill that deliver higher value products for customers or clients - determine the skills needed to deliver value - investigate how they are best acquired/developed

How do organisations regard value?

Value is defined by the receivers of HR work – the investors, customers, line managers, and employers - more than by the givers. HR is successful if and when its stakeholders perceive that it produces value. Delivering what matters most to stakeholders focuses on the deliverables (outcomes of HR) rather than on the doables (activities of HR)

Ulrich and Brockbank 2005.

Thank you